Thursday, August 27, 2009

Clippy's log - page 31

22/8 7:20pm. The screen is blank but suddenly the speakers start feeding applause! 10 minutes early too! The screen comes up to show Andrew Nicklin telling us to sing from the gallery! We need to bring this charming custom home. A few choruses and then Hail Poetry. Midga gets his note and sings; Rosuav and Traal record.

7:30pm. The show opens with a bit tacked onto the beginning of the standard overture. Good idea, I've always thought it opened too tame. The opening scene is fairly standard, until the PK's song which has a full size backdrop pirate flag flown in! The MG's entrance falls slightly flat because he acts the way Stacey thinks she does - millisecond by millisecond actions with no actual characterisation behind it. Similarly Mabel is an operatic sop concentrating on pumping volume rather than adoring Freddy. But the chorus make up for it. Until now conventional wisdom has stated (and inductive reasoning has confirmed it beyond reasonable doubt) that it's physically impossible to get a chorus to act in perfect unison, no matter how simple the action. This applies particularly to men. Well - conventional wisdom has just been turned on its head! Both choruses are millisecond perfect, on moves which most choruses we've seen before would find practically impossible to even contemplate!

9pm. Midga takes advantage of the interval to dash over to the portacabin and sign up to have the DVD posted. £5.50 for international postage isn't bad at all.

9:15pm. Act 2 here we come! Mabel and Edith do their stuff in the double chorus number. The police are a scream with their precise choreography - and having a better Sergeant than the last two I saw makes a big difference. The fight scene in the finale looks a bit crude but I'm fairly sure that was due to the video link quality. For the same reason we don't get the full effect of the pairing up either. Oh well.

10pm. Last Festival Club! Another pot-luck Trial, and this time Midga's in good voice. By the time it finishes the camera card is more than half full... Then Ian and Neil get up and do a cabaret of their own - which is brilliant. To cap it off our Defendant (Ralph from last night, expat Sydneysider) accompanies himself on the piano and sings The Carnival is Over. And invites us to sing along. Grand finale is of course Hail Poetry.

12:10am. It's time to say goodbyes. Hugs from some lovely Savoynetters, nice comments from the Smiths (they know us by sight now, and ask us to send regards to Deebee) and of course nice comments back from us. IT WAS A GREAT DAMPER BAKE!

12:30am. Home. Heave several sighs. Diary. Hot chocolate. Skype with Jodi.

2:30am. Midga heads for bed. Rosuav doesn't.

23/8 9am. Ding ding cuckoo. Midga drinks a bottle of water and goes back to sleep.

9:30am. Rosuav comes back from an expedition to the portacabin (which is being packed up - so he got some discarded stuff which will make very good souveniers) and it's time for a Google Chat with the family.

10:15am. Time to get ready for church. Bye for now, see you in one week!

11am. The Metho church is a lot less full than last week, and the service is ultra traditional. The readings are read by a lady with a very shaky voice, the organ is played slow, and all that sort of appearance stuff is perfect material for irreverent parody. The preacher is female, but the sermon is firmly Bible based and even challenges things like when religion (or religious tradition) becomes an idol. Hopefully that means some people at least are ready to give up on 19th century services - if only someone can make it happen. More importantly, the impression we got last week of a church that's serious about its faith seems to be correct.

12:23pm. Home again. Four minutes to a train - can't make it.

1:15pm. Lunch over, now off for a gunzel!!! Liverpool today, the old Merseyrail EMUs.

2:38pm. Boarded a Class 158 intercity Sprinter for Liverpool. Quite nice inside, although packed.

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